Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

silas fischer

@silasfischer.bsky.social

340 followers 420 following 83 posts

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · Apr 2

🐦 Do some birds have #PrettyPrivilege?
💫 New paper: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.2846
We show that ~half the variation in research effort on 293 bird species in US+Canada is explained by just 3 factors: 1)visual appeal, 2)range size, & 3)# of universities w/in ranges. What we did & why it matters:🧵

3 45 88

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 5d

Anyone else here going to TWS this year? 👀

The Wildlife Society @thewildlifesociety.bsky.social · 6d

Meet the sponsors of 32nd annual conference of The Wildlife Society! The event officially kicks off in Edmonton, Alberta on October 5.

Meet our sponsors! - The Wildlife Society

Find out more about the products, services and efforts TWS’ conference sponsors have to offer

wildlife.org

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 5d

Yooo see you there!

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 7d

You on the Duolingo train? I need friends there for accountability purposes!

1 1

Reposted by silas fischer

The Institute for Bird Populations @instbirdpop.bsky.social · 7d

🪶 If you are able, you donate here: birdpop.org/pages/do...
We lost roughly $1 million in funding without warning. Projects cancelled included all of our bird monitoring work for the National Park Service & projects w/ the Bureau of Land Management on Gunnison's Sage-Grouse, Pinyon Jays & more. 1/4

3 43 44

Reposted by silas fischer

Natalia Pérez-Amaya @nataliaperez-a.bsky.social · 9d

💥BREAKING: Birds in a tropical pluvial rainforest of the Chocó have been quietly changing in morphology for 109 years. Some have shrunk, others grown. Tails grew longer, bills grew deeper. Even in forests with continuous cover, climate change may be rewriting evolution in real time.

1 25 51

Reposted by silas fischer

dr. ye$enia @yesenia.bsky.social · 12d

hi everyone!! popping back into this space briefly to share the fundraiser for my long-awaited top surgery! eek! we are SO close to reaching my goal!

any form of interaction helps, even if you can't donate!
thank you, i love you, and keep taking care of each other! #transrights! gofund.me/60c167de1

Donate to Dr. Yesenia's top surgery fundraiser!, organized by Yesenia Garcia

Hello friends and loved ones of the internet! I'm posting this fund… Yesenia Garcia needs your support for Donate to Dr. Yesenia's top surgery fundraiser!

gofund.me

1 8 13

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 12d

🌵Don’t have access? Message/email me and I’ll send you a pdf. Thanks to amazing coauthors Gunnar Kramer, Matt Baumann, Evan Fahy, Kathy Granillo, & Henry Streby.

doi.org/10.1080/1559...

Migratory connectivity and potential nonbreeding sexual segregation in Gray Vireos (Vireo vicinior)

Nonbreeding distributions of most migratory North American breeding birds are relatively well-defined, but population- and sex-specific nonbreeding dispersion is poorly understood. Nonbreeding fact...

doi.org

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 12d

🗺️ Why does this matter? Nonbreeding factors can limit population growth and manifest differently among populations and sexes across the annual cycle. For conservation of migratory animals, we need info about these complex patterns—we need to be studying female birds and multiple populations! 4/

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 12d

⛰️ We also found that breeding popn’s occurring closer together don't necessarily overwinter closer together. Birds breeding @ Sevilleta NWR (NM) wintered mostly along the MX Baja Peninsula, whereas birds breeding only ~90km N of there @ Kirtland AFB (by Albuquerque) seem to winter in Sonora MX.. 3/

A multi panel figure. First panel top left shows nonbreeding dispersion probability density functions of male and female vireos that bred at Sevilleta (blue). Panel to the right shows Utah birds’ dispersion (orange), and the last panel shows Kirkland birds (yellow). Males are marked with squares, females with circles

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 12d

💫 Unexpectedly, we found ♀ appeared to winter ~5° farther N than ♂—suggesting sexual segregation on the nonbreeding grounds, which may be explained by larger body size in ♀....the OPPOSITE trend expected among songbirds exhibiting sexual segregation (where ♂ typically winter farther north). 2/

A two panel boxplot. The left panel shows female and male nonbreeding longitude, where the females and males largely overlap. However, the left panel shows latitude, depicting clear separation with females occurring almost 5 degrees farther north than males. Boxes are in green, and there is an illustration of a vireo with a geolocator.

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 12d

🐦 Never got around to posting about our paper on Gray Vireo #migration in @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social (1 of my MS chapters), but better late than never!

We used light-level geolocators to track migration ecology of ♀ and ♂ Gray Vireos from 3 breeding sites in New Mexico and Utah USA… 👇 short🧵 1/

Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 15d

From the current WJO issue: Migratory connectivity and potential nonbreeding sexual segregation in Gray Vireos (Vireo vicinior). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

Illustration depicting the full annual cycle ecology of the Gray Vireo (Vireo vicinior), including the breeding season, migration, and the nonbreeding season (a). Adult female Gray Vireo marked with a light-level geolocator (b). Oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) savanna at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA (c).

1 3 6

Reposted by silas fischer

SICB journals @sicbjournals.bsky.social · 17d

ICB

Hotter Nights, Hidden Consequences: An Overlooked Dimension of #ClimateChange

Amanda W Carter, J Morgan Fleming

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

"Global temperatures are shifting in complex ways due to climate change..."

#science #biodiversity #temperatures #research #warming

1 6

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · 18d

I feeeeellll this. I bought a sweet caddisfly case earring (look these up if you haven’t seen them!) with tiny black stones at TWS one year and the case fell off literally the first day I wore it 😭

1 2

Reposted by silas fischer

Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 19d

Reminder: We continue to seek presubmission inquiries for Review, Perspective, and Methods papers for The Wilson Journal of #Ornithology! We can offer a limited number of Open Access fee waivers each year for these types of papers.

Call for Review, Perspective, or Methods Papers—Open Access Fees Waived

The Editors-in-Chief of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology invite prospective authors to submit presubmission inquiries for Review, Perspective, or Methods papers that we can publish Free Open Acces…

wilsonsociety.org

5 8

Reposted by silas fischer

Stu Bearhop @stubearhop.bsky.social · 20d

Fully funded PhD working on insectivorous bird declines with a broad range of stakeholders. Starting ASAP #ornithology #zoology #biodiversity #science #ecology
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

77 67

Reposted by silas fischer

Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · Sep 8

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

6 280 340

Reposted by silas fischer

Matt Betts @mattbetts42.bsky.social · Sep 3

Science is rarely a linear path from hypotheses to published papers. Here, I tell the story of our many ups and downs during the discovery of pollinator recognition. Hope you enjoy it! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1 2 12

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · Sep 4

Lmaoooooo noooooooo I thought it escaped in the parking lot! 😂

1 1

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · Sep 4

🩶

a young, very round Gray Vireo fledgling with an orange color band perched on a juniper branch

1 3 24

Reposted by silas fischer

Dr. K. Lotterhos @drk-lo.bsky.social · Aug 25

Today 14 scientific societies in #ecology #evolution and #marineScience are publishing the results of a survey that finds negative impacts of federal policies on food security, flood mitigation, infectious disease preparedness, and wildlife conservation: 🧪👩‍🔬 www.firsthandaccounts.org/impacts/2025...

This infographic describes the main results from a survey of members of 14 scientific societies. There is a pie chart showing that both academic (58%) and non-academic (42%) responded to the survey. It lists statistics: 85% of respondents reported uncertainty about the future; 71% reported federal training programs were "very" or "extremely important"; 83% reported negative impacts or irreparable harm on their field of science. There is a word cloud summarizing open-ended responses with the largest words "student research fund federal grant". Eight major themes in the responses are listed: disruption of research with societal important; concerns of closure of the USGS Bird Banding Lab; Early Career Bottleneck; Restricted Freedoms including travel and speech; Decline in Government Efficiency and Expertise; Concerns about Biased/Removed Data and Data Gaps; Concerns about the Ability to Meet Legal Mandates; and From Positive Impact to Irreparable Harm. There are icons for each participating society and a QR code for website and data availability.

2 85 92

Reposted by silas fischer

Flavia Montano-Centellas @flamontano.bsky.social · Jun 26

Please share!
Our lab at LSU @lsuscience.bsky.social is looking for a student to join us in Spring or Fall 2026.
If you are interested in mountain birds and GENOMICS, and want to work on a project in Bolivian cloud forests, send me an email montanolab.com/join-us/

9 7

Reposted by silas fischer

Ethan Linck @elinck.bsky.social · Jun 26

ad to come, but I'm looking for an M.S. student to study the conservation genomics of swift foxes on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana beginning 9/1. this is a collaboration w/ Smithsonian & Justine Becker; strong candidates will have prior genomics experience and be up for remote fieldwork

1 19 28

Reposted by silas fischer

Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · Jun 18

🚨 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨

Led by Erin Morrison and @ajshultz622.bsky.social, we compiled the AvianLexiconAtlas to categorize all 10,906 bird species’ English common names. Here are some general trends we uncovered… journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... 1/4

3 20 57

silas fischer @silasfischer.bsky.social · May 23

Howdy from a trans and queer avian ecologist/artist 🤠 🐦

Reposted by silas fischer

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · May 22

Not sure if my cis pals are aware of this, but if your trans friends are sobbing in their office today this is one of the (many) reasons why:

Alexis Vandom @vandomva.bsky.social · May 22

If this spending bill passes the Senate and is signed into law in its current form, all but the most financially fortunate transgender people will be forcibly detransitioned regardless of their ability - or inability - to produce their own sex hormones.

This is a ten thousand-alarm fire.

4 98 230